The first mention of the present-day location in chronicles indicates it as the place of a village of fishermen and hunters. When the Teutonic Order began the Baltic Crusades, they built a wooden fortress, and later a ston… See more

Königsberg was preceded by a Sambian, or Old Prussian, fort known as Twangste (Prussian word tvinksta means a pond made by a dam). as well as several Old Prussian settlements, including the fishing village and port … See more

Following the Christianization of the region, the vast majority of the population was Catholic, and after the Reformation, the majority of the population belonged to the Evangelical Church of Prussia. A majority of its parish… See more

Königsberg was the birthplace of the mathematician Christian Goldbach and the writer E.T.A. Hoffmann, as well as the home of the philosopher Immanuel Kant, who lived there virtually all his life and rarely travelled m… See more

The fortifications of Königsberg consist of numerous defensive walls, forts, bastions and other structures. They make up the First and the Second Defensive Belt, built in 1626–1634 and 1843–1859, respectively. The 15-met… See more